The wind of life is blowing
Blowing people up, others down
Blowing some here, some others there
I am choosing to stand on the Word
View life with googles of faith
It doesn’t make the wind easy on me
But my stand is firm on the Rock.
The Rock holds me still so I can watch
Curtains parting, and I see a glimpse
Not enough to draw conclusions
Yet enough to spy out favored frameworks
Sturdy and set, ready, waiting for me
To walk my path with courage and grace
Eyes set beyond the grim and mean
Choosing to rise and build and paint.
I didn’t start this, I don’t control this
But the conclusion shall be my creation
Built by every brick of choices made.
I may not choose how a day is launched
What it serves or snatches, yet how it ends
Reflects where my hope is hinged.
What I make of it is what it will be for me:
O help me LORD to make each grand!
Like a joke, the year is flying along. The end of January is already upon us. Is it a little too early to ask, “How are you faring in the New year?” It is easy to start the year with great excitement and expectations but how many retain it as days drag into weeks and visions of the great year we saw at the beginning gets blurred by seemingly overwhelming circumstances? I am learning so much about the things we don’t control and how we are often flustered by those. I am equally learning loads about what we do control and how apparent impossibilities become possible by the simple seemingly insignificant every day choices we make.
It is easy to quickly conclude that this year is not going to be any different or any better than the previous. Jumping to conclusions is easy but it is not those who jump but those who stay focused irrespective of what is lurking or standing before them, that build overcoming strength from overwhelming experiences. The things that are coming at us are not to finish us: they are coming to build us, to prepare us, to equip us with what we need to take possession of the very things we have been hoping for all these years. They are coming to build in us, the strength and character we need to enjoy and sustain (not lose) that blessing when it comes. Though they appear to be tough, hard, even unexplainable, they are for us, not against us.
We have to consciously and continuously ruminate on the vision that propelled our hope, the expectation for which we have come this far. That memory will keep us going after many have dropped out. It is wisdom to acknowledge that we may not be able to change things that are beyond our control, without losing the confidence we need to wade through stormy and cloudy times in order to emerge victorious on the other side. Don’t forget, you may not have chosen to pass through the wilderness to the Promised Land but there is purpose behind that route. If and how you come out depends on who you trust and what you make of the glimpsed hope that inspired the journey. May God’s grace guide your decisions and actions.
Blessings.
Glory!